Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
1066.
450.
It was a period from the invasion of the Germanic tribes in 450. till the conquest
of England by the Normans in 1066. (William the Conqueror).
HISTORY
Up to the 7th century, all the poetry (unknown authors) was passed on orally by
the wandering singers - gleemen and scops; [e.g. the pseudohistorical tale
Legend of King Arthur and the Knights. included in Geoffrey of
Monmouths Historia Regum Britanniae where he used the character of Arthur
for the first time and writer Wace added the knights, both in the next period in
the 12th century.]
As Anglo-Saxons adopted Christianity in the 7 th century, literature started to be
written and monasteries became the centres of culture; writings were in Latin as
it was the standard language of international scholarship.
Churchmen as Alcuin, Aldhelm and Venerable Bede wrote in Latin. Venerable
Bede wrote Ecclesiastical history of the Anglos, which records the history
of the Angles. Caedmon and Cynewulf wrote religious poetry on biblical
themes such as the lives of saints, sermons and paraphrases of the Bible.
Cynewulf was the best writer of the period (except for the unknown writer of
Beowulf).
Up until the 9th century England was divided into 3 kingdoms: Northumbria,
Wessex and Mercia. There was no common language that covered the whole of
England, although the predominant dialect was Northumbrian.
In the second part of the 9th century, Alfred the Great of the Danes invaded
England, precisely Wessex and from there expanded over and united all the
kingdoms of southern England.
Alfred the Great was a great supporter of literacy and culture. He wanted to
introduce mother tongue in schools instead of Latin and personally translated
many works from Latin to West-Saxon among which also the Ecclesiastical
history of the Anglos. During his reign the southern dialect started to be more
popular and prose started to be written; mainly by Wulfstan and Aelfric who had
the best style and connected sentences via alliteration.
He founded the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle that had to record in writing the
happenings of the century in England. He also founded the colleges Oxford (11 th
century) and Cambridge (12th century).
LIFE
Characterised by constant hardship, the life was that of both rough living and
deep feeling. Five important principles were the struggle for personal freedom
and glory, love of womanhood, religion and responsiveness to nature.
LITERATURE
The English of the time was heavily inflected (many forms of the same word) and
had a small vocabulary. Vernacular language, that of the native populace, was
very popular and so were the works written in it such as the heroic epic Beowulf
and the lyrical laments The Wanderer, The Seafarer and Deor. The three
latter ones reflected the real life conditions of the pagans, although written by
Christian writers.
The literature can be divided into pagan or heathen and religious or Christian.
EPIC
2 kinds of epic:
1) traditional or primary epics: written versions of originally oral poems
Odyssey, Illiad, Chanson de Roland, Beowulf
2) literary or secondary epics: written by individual poets in deliberate imitation
of the traditional form
Virgils Aeneid, Miltons Paradise Lost, Dantes Divine Comedy, Keats
Hyperion
Aristotle ranked epics second best next to tragedies, but in Renaissance they
were the best.
An epic has to have: a hero of great importance, a love story, a geographically
vast setting, supernatural characters and other elements, gods and power.
Bourgeois epic: all novels that reflect the social reality on a broad scale
Beowulf
Written in the 8th century, it is the longest epic in Anglo-Saxon language
consisting of more than 3000 lines in vernacular language.
In it Grendel, an imaginary half-man-half-monster, attacks the land of the Danish
king Hrothgar (real character). Beowulf, a Gaetish hero comes from Sweden and
kills Grendel and his mother who comes to revenge her son.
The author is unknown and the story is based on folklore and myth, deriving from
a Scandinavian legend. The aim was to portray nature and the way of life at the
time and to criticise some parts of it. Grendel represents winter and death and
Beowulf the new era, which is characterised by agriculture and the rise to
nobility.
It has head rhyme; harsh language and an expanded vocabulary. It is melancholic
and mystic.
The Wanderer
Consists of two speeches or moral passages:
1) Earth wanderer or wraeca (autobiographical soliloquy): roaming in search for a
new lord
2) soliloquy against the world; reflections of past times, victory of winter and of
night
The Seafarer
Again, an exiled wraeca who speaks of events and predicts his future. More
emotional than the Wanderer, however emotions change from fear and
desperation to understanding and hope of a better life.
It has a more soliloquy-like form than The Wanderer and more punctuation
easier to read.
Both The Wanderer and The Seafarer have soliloquies and a Christian structure
(prologue, main body, epilogue).
The Deor
Not in soliloquies and has more protagonists. At times cheerful and optimistic.
The poem is arranged in strophes and is more poetic, which is important for its
effect on later works.
1066. 1500.
HISTORY
In the battle of Hastings in 1066. the last Saxon king Harold was defeated by
William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, who became the ruler of England. The
Norman conquest brought Latin culture and ideals and a wealth of culture and
literature. It imposed a French-speaking ruling over England, which became the
language of the upper classes, while Anglo-Saxon developed as the language of
the lower classes French had a great influence on English literature and culture.
The period can be subdivided into 2:
1) until 1350.
The Normans had absorbed Roman values and Christianity; they were literate.
Until 1350. English had been used by lower classes and written literature had
been mainly religious because of the Churchs wish to teach the right way of
life.
2) after 1350.
By the 14th century English won over Norman French as it was the language of
the majority; it became the language of both the court and the common people.
Vernacular or middle English (East Midland English and later London English)
came into general literary use this was an age of secular literature. (modern
English derives from East Midland)
There were remains of French in the court and Latin kept being the language of
science, philosophy and religion.
This was the greatest age of the Middle English period with writers such as
Chaucer, Langland, Wycliffe and the Pearl poets.
LIFE
The Normans brought a lively Celtic disposition and a progressive Latin
civilisation. Norse traits will and power; French traits curiosity and
imagination.
LITERATURE
themes: history, chivalry, love, religion, (mis)deeds of monks
4
7 lines stanza with ABA BB CC) The Parliament of Fawles The Legend of
Good Women
3) English: leaves allegorical visions and writes about his contemporaries
CANTERBURY TALES
is a collection of tales more than 1700 lines long.
It starts off with The Prologue which introduces the setting and characters;
theres 32 men and women, all pilgrims, on a pilgrimage to the grave of the
former archbishop of Canterbury. On this journey, each person has to tell 2
stories, one going to and the other fro. The pilgrims are knights, priests,
merchants, common people,
Their host is Harry Bailey (actually Chaucers voice) who interferes and
comments but leaves it to the reader to understand the tale.
tale The wife of Bath; shes a woman ahead of her time, has 5 husbands and
controls the marriage which is opposite to the then patriarchal society
The pardoners tale is an illustration of culture and faith; the pardoner
represents a broken and twisted faith and the corrupted Church, he sells
forgiveness for money
The knights tale describes the noble knight as a feminine figure
(homosexuality?)
The nuns priest tale is a beast fable written in heroic couplet (rhymed
iambic pentameter) where cock, hen and fox represent human virtues and vices;
romance is also present and the cock brags himself (the only thing he knows how
to do) which is an ironic approach to the animal
RENAISSANCE
1500. 1660.
POETRY
- it effectively evokes vivid experiences, emotions and ideas through imagery,
tone, meter, figures,
SIR THOMAS WYATT
wrote They flee from me
theme: love, the poet is in prison and remembers his past loves (they)
The poet used to be popular, but now all of them left him as he couldnt provide
them with a demanded change. He blames himself for it. There was a special
woman (She) who lacked loyalty in love. He compares his women with halfdomestic pets.
The poem was written under the influence of Italian sonnets; its tone is sad,
melancholic with comparisons and irony. It is written in iambic pentameter.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
wrote sonnets addressed to a certain male friend and a Dark Lady; he printed his
books in folio and quarto
That time of year
English sonnet (3 quatrains + 1 couplet)
theme: getting old and the passing of youth; hes getting old perhaps even dying
and he thinks that the person hes speaking to will love him even more now that
they must part
yellow leaves which shake against the cold. getting old
The twilight of such a day black night. death
My mistress eyes
a mocking at Italian sonnets false compare
usage of conceits to talk about how horrible and ugly his mistress is, but he still
loves her I think my love is rare
When to the sessions of sweet silent thought
typical sonnet: love, sorrow, joy, hate, friendship, suffering
he thinks that he wasted his time, thinks about the friends and loves he lost; he
will always feel sorrow but friendship is here to stay forever
SIR PHILLIP SIDNEY
poet and critic
Poetry was said to be worthless and useless and thus he wrote the essay The
defence of Poesy where he says that poetry is important as it delights but
also teaches morals and life; in it he accepts Aristotles theory that poetry is
imitation of nature, that it makes nature more beautiful than it is
He wrote about 150 sonnets and a sonnet sequence Astrophel and Stella
along with a prose romance Arcadia, a collection of eclogues, written in
sanazzaro
10
EDMUND SPENSER
poet, wanted to clean English of unnecessary establishments to make it simple
and show that its fit for poetic writing
The shepherds calendar, a poem for every month of the year; written in
different meters and 10 of them are eclogues
Mother Hubbards tale a satirical poem in which he criticises the Elizabethan
court
Amoretti is a sonnet sequence with a famous (love poem) ending
Faery queen is an allegorical poem about human virtues, each of which has
been given a special knight protector; Gloreana is the faery queen who signifies
the glory of possessing virtues as that makes one rich; the poem describes every
social class, it is patriotic and addressed to 3 Elizabeths (mother, future wife,
queen)
Spenserian stanza consists of 9 lines (8 iambic pentameters + 1 iambic
hexameter)
with rhyme ABAB BCBC C
LITERATURE
Metaphysical poetry ( motto: Carpe diem! )
Secular poetry
Religious poetry
11
NEOCLASSICAL PERIOD
1660. 1785.
13
LITERATURE
As reason still ruled supreme, form was also still above content and emotions
were scarce. Life was studied with a lack of balance; it was more studied than it
was lived. Although it didnt disappear, poetry became more prosaic. All literature
retained realism and formalism and the prevalent form of literature was satire
with a great influence of ancient classics. Also, writers didnt want to experiment
so they repeated what they already knew; heroic couplet, same rhythm and same
phrases a petrification of language.
ALEXANDER POPE
Singer of the Universe; a classical poet and master of rhetoric figures, he sums
up the 18th century
a perfectionist in writing, wanted correctness and polished phrases
he was also a critic: Ode to solitude Essay on man
; mocked the epic with The rape of the lock where a trivial subject such as a
cut-off lock of hair is treated as a catastrophe
ROMANTICISM
1785. 1830.
LITERATURE
In romanticism prose became more of an artistic form and was followed by the
development of the historical novel (Ivanhoe W. Scott). Romanticism is
characterised by a fight against the social norms and every limitation. Freedom
and nonconformity are the principles of the protagonists who are regularly
outcasts.
Poetry of meditation concerns itself with these problems and overall human
experience.
There are 2 generations of authors:
1) William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Robert Burns
2) Mary Shelley, John Keats, Lord Byron
WILLIAM WORDSWORTH
rejected poetic diction; his writing was simple as he said that Good poetry is the
spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings
Daffodils; theme: nature
WILLIAM BLAKE
The sick rose; theme: illicit love affair
uses very strange images: rose ~ the invisible worm, bed of crimson, dark secret
love
rose feminine beauty, love, women
worm death, secret lover
crimson joy passionate sex
dark secret love concealed love affair
ROBERT BURNS
A red, red rose; theme: love
uses similes that establish comparison with words like like as such
JOHN KEATS
wrote Ode to a nightingale
The poet is sad. He is sitting in an orchard and he sees the nightingale; he wants
to escape with it into the forest, out of reality. He chooses poetry to do so over
drunkenness as it brings him closer to thought of immortality. He reaches the
woods mentally; at first hes overwhelmed but doesnt want to die, then he
allows himself that thought. Hes in the fairy land forlorn; midway between his
world and the one he wants to live in. He confesses that despite thought of death
he still wants to live and wonders whether the song he heard or the world are
real.
15
VICTORIAN AGE
1832. 1901.
16
LITERATURE
Literature reflected the problems of the time (religious, intellectual, social,
political).
The dominant form is the novel (monthly publishing) and the dominant theme is
childhood.
The critics of the time, Carlyle, Ruskin and Arnold rebelled against Victorian
doctrines (materialism, utilitarianism, narrow-mindedness) and wanted class
harmony.
LITERARY MOVEMENTS
1) PRE-RAPHAELITES
a group of critics who wanted to bring back Raphaels style of painting and art,
also into poetry; truth, simplicity and a spirit of devotion;
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Christina Rossetti, William Morris
2) LART POUR LART
love of art for its own sake proposed by Immanuel Kant in his writings and
introduced to England by Walter Peter;
Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Lionel Johnson
3) AESTHETICISM
a work of art has no use or moral aim outside its own being, it is a human product
of supreme value;
Charles Baudelaire, Edgar Allan Poe, Flaubert, Mallarme, Verlaine
4) DECADENCE
exploration of strange sensations, experiments with drugs and different modes of
sexual experience; a representative work is The picture of Dorian Gray;
Oscar Wilde, Arthur Symons, Algernon Charles Swinburne
--------------------------POETS:
Lord Tennyson, Robert and Elizabeth Browning, Mathew Arnold
NOVELISTS:
Charlotte and Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, William M. Thackeray,
Samuel Butler, Thomas Hardy
ESSAYISTS:
Thomas Carlyle, John Ruskin, Mathew Arnold, Walter Peter
CHARLES DICKENS
He was very good in portraying characters and had a great feeling for the rhythm
of speech of the poor and uneducated. His novels are marked by a sense of
injustice and everything depends on the individual to solve.
17
EDWARDIAN AGE
1901. 1914.
The period between the death of queen Victoria and the start of the first World
War.
POETS: William Butler Yeats, Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling
PROSAISTS: Thomas Hardy, Rudyard Kipling, John Galsworthy, Henry James
PLAYWRIGHTS and DRAMATISTS: William Butler Yeats, John Galsworthy, George
Bernard Shaw, Lady Gregory, Henry Arthur Jones, Synge
GEORGIAN AGE
1910. 1936.
18